The present invention is an improvement upon granola and granola products and their method of preparation. More specifically, the present invention provides methods for preparing granola and granola products containing chocolate and to granola breakfast cereal products provided therefrom.
Granola and granola products are popular food items. Generally, traditional granola is a baked combination of dry particulate ingredients such as grains, nut meats, dried fruits and a sugar syrup binder. Upon baking, granola is a relatively shelf-stable food item. In addition to removing moisture from the sugar syrup binder, baking imparts a cooked or toasted flavor that can easily be distinguished from the unbaked granola ingredients. The sugar syrup binder, as the name implies, binds individual unbaked granola ingredients together creating an agglomerated semi continuous mass. Granola is often baked in sheets and cooled where it becomes semi solid and brittle easily broken or cut into desired sized pieces.
Since granola is shelf-stable and contains ingredients perceived as healthy, it has enjoyed lasting popularity as an ideal food to consume while camping or engaging in other outdoor activities. Granola used for this purpose is largely crumbly consisting of numerous irregular shaped pieces. As consumer demand for healthy foods and snacks has increased, companies that market and manufacture food products have found many additional uses and forms of granola.
Granola bars are one example of an additional use and form of granola. Traditional granola can be pressed into pans, baked and cut into bars. To introduce variety to granola bars, different combinations of dry particulate ingredients and flavors are added.
Granola breakfast cereals are one example of another use and form of granola. Traditional granola was consumed with milk as a morning meal. Breakfast cereal manufacturers have sought to improve the quality of granola as a breakfast cereal. To that end, cereal manufacturers blend granola with cereal puffs, shreds, flakes and other traditional cereal pieces. These combinations create interesting tasting and textured breakfast cereals. Other improvements have sought to create more uniform and typical breakfast cereal sized granola pieces or clusters. Granola cereals with more uniformly shaped pieces or clusters in addition to being more visually appealing have a more predictable bowl-life. Other improvements to granola products have sought to improve product textures to those that are crunchy but not excessively hard or compact into teeth upon consumption.
The perceived health benefits of granola have increased its popularity in recent years as individuals desire to increase their consumption of whole grains, fiber and fruit. Driven by this consumer demand, food manufacturers are increasing their efforts to create unique granola product offerings. One such variety of particular interest is granola containing chocolate. Chocolate provides a sweet and indulgent characteristic to granola and interestingly dark chocolate varieties are perceived as healthy by many consumers because they are known to contain antioxidants.
Adding chocolate to granola and granola products presents a unique set of challenges. Simply admixing chocolate pieces with finished prepared granola creates a heterogeneous mixture easily separated by gravity and or minor agitation. Such granola products are less desirable because the chocolate pieces migrate through the granola to the bottom of the mixing container, storage container or end user consumer packaging. Additionally, any exposure to temperatures above the melting point of the chocolate will cause the individual chocolate pieces accumulated in the bottom of the container to soften, melt and agglomerate. In addition to being visually unappealing a product experiencing such separation and agglomeration cannot be effectively remixing by the end consumer.
Others have sought to reduce this problem by combining chocolate pieces with still warm finished prepared granola. This method provides only a minor reduction in separation of chocolate from granola by gravity and minor agitation. Most chocolate pieces added in this manor do not sufficiently melt to adhere to the warm granola to remain permanently attached. Incorporating chocolate pieces to hot finished prepared granola sufficiently melts the chocolate pieces, but the mixing required to distribute the chocolate pieces throughout the granola creates a new problem, smearing. Smearing is the minor coating of granola ingredients caused by melted chocolate being removed from the surface of chocolate pieces and deposited onto the granola ingredients. In fact, severe examples of smearing produce chocolate coated granola products void of any chocolate pieces vs. granola containing intact chocolate pieces.
In another approach chocolate pieces are combined with grains and nuts prior the addition of a sugar binder. Addition of chocolate at this stage is also problematic. Often, the sugar binder used to prepare granola is added hot, above the melting point temperature of chocolate. Heat from the sugar binder both softens and melts the chocolate pieces. When combined with the mixing required to coat the granola ingredients with hot sugar binder, the chocolate smears throughout the granola. Baking the granola mixture in this state can lead to off flavors, reduced performance of the sugar binder and additional clean-up of product handling equipment. While this method is useful in producing granola containing chocolate, the end product can be visually unappealing and is less preferred by consumers.
Thus, the present invention is concerned with the problems of providing granola and granola products with chocolate pieces distributed throughout the product without separation of chocolate pieces from the granola or smearing in the finished product. Separation and smearing problems are avoided in the present invention by selecting chocolate pieces formulated to remain intact when elevated above the melting point temperature of chocolate. Surprisingly, it is possible to add chocolate pieces to the granola ingredients prior to the addition of a sugar binder in a method that starts with chilled chocolate pieces containing dextrose and use of a sugar binder formulated to perform as required at about 29-32° C. (85-90° F.) or colder. Surprisingly, by employing the combination of pre-chilled chocolate pieces contain dextrose, formulating an effective sugar syrup binder than can be used at low temperatures and using the particular sugar syrup at low application temperatures, a granola chocolate mixture of this invention can be mixed, baked, cooled and packaged yielding finished granola with chocolate distributed throughout the product without separation and smearing. The finished product also enjoys the traditional appearance, taste and texture of traditional granola notwithstanding the addition of chocolate.